ROOTED: an exhibition of contemporary art

Lisette Forsyth | Lorna Scheepers | Jo Roets | Laurel Holmes
Joanna Lee Miller | Sylvester Zanoxolo Mqeku | Claude Chandler
Corné Eksteen | Pascale Chandler | Claudia Treagus

Free Entry by Ticket: BOOKING ESSENTIAL

To be rooted is to belong—to a landscape, a memory, a community or a way of seeing the world. It suggests stability, but also growth: the invisible foundations from which new life and new ideas emerge.

Presented in Stanford during Stanford in Bloom, Rooted brings together contemporary South African artworks that explore our relationship with place, landscape, memory and the natural world. Inspired by the festival theme After the Fire, the exhibition considers renewal in its broadest sense—not simply as regeneration within nature, but as the ways we adapt, remember and find beauty in what remains.

The works do not interpret the idea of being rooted in one literal or exclusively botanical way. Instead, they approach it through diverse subjects, materials and perspectives. Some look closely at the land and its distinctive forms; others speak to personal histories, identity, resilience or the emotional pull of familiar places. Together, they reveal how deeply our surroundings shape both individual experience and creative expression.